My
Favorite Verse
Luke 4:18-19
"The Spirit of the
Lord is upon Me, because of which he has anointed Me to proclaim good
news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind, to send out in freedom those who
are oppressed, to proclaim the
favorable year of the Lord."
This passage is a partial quote from
Isaiah 61:1-3:
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is
on Me; because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the
poor; He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to preach the acceptable year of Jehovah and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to appoint to those who
mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; so that
they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah,
that He might be glorified.
This is the message which Jesus first
proclaimed in his hometown
synagogue in Nazareth, and was rejected by his townspeople (apparently
according to John 1:11). One would think that one would hear this
message proclaimed in the church, but alas, I have not heard it
proclaimed much in my 37 years of Christian life in a variety of
'churches'.
I conclude from this that the
'church' in general is carnal, and not
faithful to our Lord Jesus - they are faithful only to their limited
perception of Him which fits into their carnal mindset. On the other
hand, there are those faithful souls of every generation who seem to
have a better perception of God and His ways and His plans and purposes
because through brokenness and contrition they have been set free from
living for themselves to start living for God according to 2
Corinthians 5:15:
(ISV) He
died for all people, so
that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the
one who died and rose for them.
These have 'come out' of the mindset
and heartset of the world and its
selfishness, pride and waywardness from God in response to God's call
to 'come out':
2 Cor
6:17-18 Therefore come out
from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the
unclean thing. And I will receive you and I will be a Father to you,
and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
Have you heeded the call
to come out and be separated to know God and to fulfill His plans and
purposes for you, dear reader??
PLEASE NOTE: Jesus, at the time of the beginning of his earthly
ministry, only proclaimed the 'favorable year of the Jehovah', and did
not then proclaim 'the day of vengeance of our God'!!! But now I
believe that the time is ripe to proclaim both the 'favorable year of
the Lord' or 'the acceptable year of Jehovah' and also the day of vengeance of our God.
What is the favorable
year of the Lord? I believe that it is that today is the day of
Salvation for each person who hears the Gospel invitation to
reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. It is never
tomorrow because no one is guaranteed to live and be able to respond to
God's invitation tomorrow!
What is the 'day of vengeance of our
God? I believe that it is a
day which God has appointed to impose the penalties which are due to
people who have not repented of their sins in order to become
transformed into the image of Christ by the power of God's Holy
Spirit. I further believe that if a person dies before he or she
has repented of his or her sins and has become reconciled to God
through Jesus Christ, then that person will be held captive in Hell
awaiting the final Day of Judgment.
PS: I further believe that
Christians will all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ to answer for their unresolved sins before they
can enter into their eternal life with God. God wants all people
to be 'sanctified in the truth', and this final judgment of His people
will purge the members of the body of Christ from all residual sin and
unrighteousness.